Free Settlers

Free from laws, taxes and any sort of prosperous future.

Complaining about your government is a favourite pasttime of many. Most never do anything about it. And what could you even do, especially in the Old World? Some choose to escape the problem by literally escaping to the New World. However, more and more of the New World falls under the authority and oppression of the Old World. Even the newly-arrived settlers immediately try to establish laws of their own. So, what next?
Well, how about we set up our own colony but without an actual government to rule over it? Free to live however we want, as long as it does not get in the way of other settlers. Would that not be so much better of a way to live your life? This is the sort of talk you would hear from any of Free Settlers as they call themselves. A bunch of nonsense if you ask me, and we will to the reasons why in a minute.

Structure

Now, I do not know whose idea it originally was to describe Free Settlers as an organisation. A sort of intentional taunt if I ever seen one. What I know is that such a classification angers all Free Settlers to no end. After all, they are supposed to be independent of everything! For the most part, that is even true.
Free Settlers live in their own little communes, usually built around extended families working a plot of land together. Everyone is their own king within the borders of claimed land, and would only help out a neighbour if they felt like it. Notice here my use of the word "claimed", which is one of the biggest issues with the whole concept. With no authorities to speak of, who is to settle border disputes between two neighbouring families? And that is the first and biggest problem with Free Settlers, and the reason why most of their colonies fail within the span of months or years.

Public Agenda

Officially, Free Settlers are open to all and any people who wish to settle in their communes. Newcomers are given a plot of land, usually of smaller size and worse quality the later they arrived, and left to their own devices. Naturally, that causes the Free Settlers colonies to be among the quickest ones to grow. And here comes their second problem.
Imagine this - you somehow managed to coexist along with several hundred other independent-minded settlers, and built a prosperous colony together. Then a fleet of Ardenian or Eirish ships shows up, full of soldiers, and suddenly you find yourself just one of their numerous colonies. Subject to their laws and taxes and none of the priviliges you have grown accustomed to. Perhaps you give up and stay put, or you try to fight back and fail. Or maybe you pack up all your things and leave again, going further into the New World in the search of yet unclaimed land.
In fact, there is something I heard on good authority from a member of imperial administration in charge of Ardenian Empire's colonisation efforts. Apparently, his office unofficially supports many of Free Settlers groups as a way of indirectly establishing new colonies. Not only does it allow them to single out and isolate more rebellious members of the Ardenian population from the rest, but it also provides the Empire with low-cost way of quickly building up entire settlements and colonies from scratch. This was all told in vague hints of course, but you get the idea.